


once when you weren't looking, I did a cannonball

by t0talcha0s



Series: Summer Camp AU [2]
Category: Hunter X Hunter
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Summer Camp, Did y'all have shaving cream fights at camp? I did. They rocked., Friendship, Gen, Gon Freecss is a little imp :P, Just a couple of best friends having the best times, Summer Camp
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-09
Updated: 2020-10-09
Packaged: 2021-03-07 22:42:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,669
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26905318
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/t0talcha0s/pseuds/t0talcha0s
Summary: When Killua was told to pack a bag and ship off to summer camp he was not excited in the least. Everyone was boring, there were bugs everywhere, and his oldest brother was his counselor. This summer looked like it was going to be one of the worst of his life. It was set up to be, and then he met Gon Freecss.
Relationships: Gon Freecs & Killua Zoldyck, Gon Freecs/Killua Zoldyck
Series: Summer Camp AU [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1956514
Comments: 3
Kudos: 67





	once when you weren't looking, I did a cannonball

**Author's Note:**

  * For [neverwherever](https://archiveofourown.org/users/neverwherever/gifts).



> Juliaaaaa camp AU! For you!

Killua’s parents had dropped him and his siblings off at camp less than a week ago. But, if you asked Killua, it had to have been at least three months. His eldest brother ran his cabin and his youngest brother followed him around with a silent, judging gaze and there was a kid with a shaved head who slept in the bunk above him and always dangled his bare feet off the edge near Killua’s head. It was horrible. Everyone was boring. The other boys were too loud or too dumb or wouldn’t be worth trying to wrestle with and probably would have cried if Killua tried the move he had been trying out on Milluki before they were all abandoned here anyway. If it weren’t for his parents taking a month long work-vacation Killua would have asked to leave days ago. Alas, he was stuck. 

Every morning each cabin had a meeting to run over the plan for the day and when Illumi gathered up his children a solemn awkwardness hung over the cabin. Zushi and Kalluto sat on either side of Killua. 

“We are having a camp-wide competition,” Illumi said “a foot-race, a rope’s course, and then we’re ending the day in a shaving cream fight.” He looked off into the distance, as if he couldn’t be even slightly bothered with the monotony of the job he was working. “We meet the other cabins after lunch. Until then, you can hike with Kite or ride horses with Knuckle or go swimming. I’ll see you at lunch.” Illumi waved a hand, dismissive, and the other boys got up and went to brush their teeth or go sign up for a hike or try to get first dibs on one of the unbroken kayaks. Illumi was looking at Killua though, and so Killua, who was going to see if he could find anything venomous to scare Kalluto with, sat back down on the cabin floor with a huff. 

“What?” He asked. 

“You were late to lights out last night.” Illumi said, giving Killua that bitter-disappointed look he always did whenever Killua wasn’t good enough. Killua was never good enough. “Over an hour late.”

“Yeah well,” he kicked the floor where a bandaid was stuck sticky side down to the wood. His sneakers made a squeaking noise. “I wasn’t tired.” It wasn’t an explanation, he didn’t want it to be. He didn’t look Illumi in the eyes.“It’s no big deal, it’s not like you even called the other counselors to find me like when Retz got lost on her way back from the bathroom a few nights ago.”

Illumi put his hands on his knees and pushed himself up from where he was perched on an old log. 

“Well, it’s a big enough deal that you’re not leaving this cabin until lunch hour.”

“You’re kidding!?” Illumi just blinked at him. 

“No.” He said “Kalluto brought one of his mystery novels if you need something to read while stuck inside all day.” He headed towards the door, holding up a hand. “I’ll come get you before lunch.” 

So Killua sat inside the cabin. He wandered every inch of it, bored out of his skull. He dug through Kalluto’s bag, finding his mystery novel, and read the back of it. He decided mystery novels were for nerds and Kalluto was one hell of a nerd. He wasn’t going to sit there and read the thing and anyways mysteries were easy to figure out. On the dedication page he doodled a little man, something to freak Kalluto out when he opened it next. He sat on Zushi’s bunk and took his shoes off, pressing footprints to the low ceilings like an instructional dance mat. Zushi made his bed every morning and Killua was tempted to hide something under the tightly made covers. He couldn’t think of what though, didn’t have anything funny on hand. Zushi didn’t seem like the type to take a joke well anyway. He had the idea to prank Illumi but along with the thought in his head was a shiver down his spine at the idea of the consequences. 

After he’d walked all over the cabin, explored every little spider web and divot in the wood, he flopped onto his back on the floor and thought about sneaking out. It wasn’t that close to noon yet, the sun through the cabin window was still at least a half hour from its zenith, and Illumi wouldn’t come to check on him would he? There were half a dozen other kids in the cabin, Illumi had more than just him to deal with. He was probably sitting by the lake, in the shade of course, watching the snails chew through the lichen on the rocks. Assured in his action, Killua stood up and opened the door. 

The cabins were situated in a big semi-circle, with the bathrooms down a little ways at the top of the circle. The tall, dark trees that let only the scantest notions of sunlight through their leaves in the thickest parts of the forest had been cleared away to make a little courtyard between all the cabins. The cabin across from Killua’s, on the other side of the grassy courtyard, was run by the loudest, grouchiest, and apparently softest counselor at the camp, Leorio. Killua had once heard kids from his cabin talking about how he teared up when he found a dead mouse underneath one of the bunks. He gave it a big funeral and everything when all the other cabins were asleep. 

Coming out of that cabin, at the same time Killua opened the door to his, was a boy his age with a great shock of dark hair and a big smile on his face. He was running, pulling up his swim trunks as he dashed out into the courtyard, his flip-flops threatening to fly right off of his high-kicked feet. He stopped for a second when he noticed Killua’s presence and waved. His eyes were big and bright and his smile took up most of his face. There was something about him, the fact that he didn’t have tan lines or his shorts were the same green as the undersides of the leaves or that his eyes on Killua made him feel like he was caught in the middle of a natural disaster. He seemed like he belonged in the forest, like he shouldn’t be slipping out from the cabin but from between the trees. Killua, unusually startled by this kid, waved back. 

“Are you gonna come swimming?” He asked, his voice filling the space between the cabins. Killua wanted to, for some reason, he really wanted to. But, striding up the pathway to the cabins was his brother. He shook his head, slow, like it took effort. 

“I was just going to the bathroom.” The boy’s smile faded a notch, but he gave a happy little nod and continued his jog, out in the direction of the lake. Illumi watched the boy, in that appraising way of his, then turned his gaze to Killua. 

“Just going to the bathroom.” His expression didn’t look like it was a question, more like a threat. 

“Yeah bro,” Killua said, kicking a pebble out of the cabin doorway, “I need to pee. Shouldn’t you be out with the other kids?” 

“Zushi ran out of sunscreen.” 

“Oh.” He took a step forward, the grass tickling his toes above his sandals. “Well have fun with that, I’m gonna go pee.” 

After the bathroom and after lunch all of the cabins were gathered up in the field by the archery range and Netero, who ran the camp, spoke. 

“We’re having a little competition today,” he said “starting with a race. Do your best, there are no prizes.” The race was a relay and Illumi put Killua as the final leg of the race, Kalluto first. When it was his turn to run, when Zushi was barreling at him with flushed cheeks and a baton in his hand Killua dropped into a crouch and prepared to run. He wasn’t going to let these other cabins upstage him, even if the whole competition was kind of lame. Killua did love to show off after all, and he was fast. Zushi was the first of the kids in his leg to get to the end of it and Killua thought he barely needed the head start. He was well on his way across the field towards the finish line when a spiky head appeared right next to him. It was the same kid from before, with a darker smile on his face. 

“You’re pretty fast,” he said to Killua. He sounded impressed even though he was keeping up with ease. 

“Yeah,” Killua said, “You could be worse. Sorry I’m going to beat you” he shrugged at the end of his sentence, though his calves began to burn as he picked up his pace, trying harder then he would have liked to keep the other boy from getting in front of him. The boy laughed, loud like morning bird calls and light as the wind through bushes. Killua almost stopped in his tracks, but dug a little deeper and managed to get out ahead of him. The boy’s final time came closer to his then he would have liked. He wondered if he didn’t have the head start Zushi gave him if he would have lost. The boy, bending his knees a bit as he caught his breath, looked right at Killua, right into his eyes. 

“I’m Gon!” He said, “I’m in Leorio’s cabin. I don’t see you around a lot.” 

“I’m Killua.” He reached to say more but the race was over and the boys from the cabins were surrounding them and they were being herded towards the next event, a rope’s course. The course, well courses, were hung up in the canopy of the trees, at least 20 feet off the ground. There were three paths, each with a wire above them where the person attempting the course was strapped into a harness so they couldn’t fall off. 

“This is a test,” Netero said, “of agility and speed. Each camper will attempt the course and the average time of all the campers will be the cabin’s final. We’ll go three campers at a time.” He smiled mischievously “We used to do this with water balloons you know, so you could distract the other participants. But well, with latex allergies and complaints we were forced to quit.” He shrugged. “Have at it.” 

While other campers were strapped into harnesses and running the gauntlet Gon snuck over to where Illumi’s cabin was standing. 

“Killua,” He said “this looks like a lot of fun. Do you like heights? I love heights, my aunt always yells at me for climbing the big tree in our backyard.” 

“I like heights,” Killua said, “my family lives on top of a mountain, and if you crawl through my sister’s window you can sit on the roof and see the whole town below.” 

“That’s so cool! I wonder if you climb on top of the mess hall roof if you could see all the way to the cabins.” 

“Probably, it’s up on that hill.”

“Do you want to try it?”  
“What?” 

“Do you want to try it, climbing up on the roof?” Killua looked to see if anyone was listening, Illumi was distracted as he stood watching one of his campers get helped into his harness. 

“You serious?” 

“Yeah,” he said “and I bet you get really good stars up there. We get great stars on the island. You know Leorio told me one of his friend’s says there’s supposed to be a meteor shower one of these nights.” 

“Soon?”

“Super soon!” 

“What makes you think Leorio’s friend knows what he’s talking about.” Gon shrugged 

“I trust Leorio,” He said and there was something in his tone that made Killua trust him too. Then it was time for them to take the course.

Gon got the course with a bridge made of tire swings and Killua’s had a very skinny plank of wood you were supposed to walk over, though it was super shaky. Gon looked over at him in that same way he had when they were racing: determined, competitive, excited. Killua smiled back, he wasn’t going to let Gon get so close to beating him this time. The whistle sounded and Gon was off faster then he had any right to be. Killua tried to keep up and, after skipping some of the steps on a section, was neck and neck with Gon. Gon leapt from tire to tire, skipping across them easily and Killua watched him, how smoothly he did it, how happy he was to be doing it, like it was as natural as breathing, as natural as tsunamis. When Killua went to jump from one of the landings to the plank of wood, distracted from watching Gon move, his feet hit empty air and the harness caught him with a sharp pain beneath his ribs. He climbed back on to the course and managed to finish just behind Gon but as the embarrassment of failure stuffed itself beneath his cheeks he couldn't help but blame the other boy. Gon just smiled at him, didn’t bring up Killua’s fall. 

“That was so fun!” He said instead, glueing himself to Killua’s side as they walked to the next event. He talked about the cool animals he’d heard in the forest before he went to bed and how he’d never been on a ropes course before and how Leorio snores really loud but Gon doesn’t mind because his great-grandma does too and how he always wakes up early and jumps off the top bunk and feels bad because it wakes up the boy who sleeps beneath him. Killua talked about how lame his brothers and his cabin are and how the lake always makes his hair feel gritty and about the cool snake he saw in the showers on the first day and how he wasn’t allowed to bring his skateboard to camp even though he was just getting really good at a few tricks. They talked through Netero’s speech, explaining the shaving cream fight: how each camper got a can of shaving cream and how you weren’t allowed to aim for the face and when your shaving cream was empty you were done. 

The cabins split up for a moment, Gon seemed extremely put out as he was pulled back into Leorio’s group, and Illumi looked at Killua as he handed him his can of shaving cream. 

“Who is that?” He asked. 

“Some kid.”

“I thought you were bored by the kids here.”

“This one’s pretty cool I guess.” He took the can from Illumi, who almost didn’t let it go, he could still feels his eyes on him as he walked away back into the crowds of campers, trying to find Gon again. Instead, he almost ran chest-first into Kalluto. Kalluto’s gaze is easier to handle then Illumi’s but Killua still found him a little creepy. “What do you want?” He asked him, giving him a little shove to Kalluto’s shoulder so he had to step back. Behind his dark hair Killua could see Gon scanning the crowd, his face lit up when he noticed Killua. 

“Is that kid your friend?” Kalluto asked, genuine. Gon jogged towards the two of him. Killua sent his brother a look. 

“Why do you wanna know?” 

“Just asking.”

“Hey Killua!” Gon called, taking his place right next to Killua, on his left side. “Who’s this? I’m Gon,” he gave a wave to Kalluto “are you in Killua’s cabin? He says it sucks and everyone’s boring but I don’t believe him.” Kalluto looked between the two of them. 

“He’s my little brother,” Killua grumbled, eager to get away from his siblings. “Come on Gon.” 

“Wait, first I wanted to tell you something.” Killua looked over at him, trying to hide his curiosity, trying to play it cool. 

“What is it then?” Gon’s eyes caught the light of the afternoon sun, something mischievous in them. 

“Well you know, it’s just that I snuck away from my group when we passed by the lunch hall and I saw a really easy tree to climb that could help us get on the roof!” 

“Cool.”

“And also, Leorio was telling me something about how the lunch hall might be haunted.” He leaned up closer to Killua, pushing his voice into a whisper. Killua leaned towards him. It was easy to fall into Gon, to want to occupy his space. “He was telling me a story about an old cook who used to work here.” Gon paused.

“What about him?” 

“Oh just that,” and as Gon’s face split into a smile Killua knew something was up but due to their close proximity Gon had the upper hand, literally, and as Killula tried to move away Gon managed to shove a palm full of shaving cream right into Killua’s face. Some of it got up his nose. Kalluto, who Killua had forgotten was even there, had the nerve to laugh. His cheeks blazed hot and he launched himself at Gon. 

“You idiot!” Gon laughed, bright, as Killua grabbed his shoulders and shoved him to the ground. Gon kicked his legs beneath him, trying to get Killua off. Killua took his shaving cream can in hand, aimed it at Gon’s face, and squirted a heavy foam across Gon’s cheeks, down his chin, in his right ear. Gon kicked and squirmed, jolting his legs upwards and managing to get Killua off him. He reached for his own can of shaving cream, aiming for Killua’s face but getting him on the chest, the residue of the shaving cream dripping through his shirt. They wrestled, Killua managing to get a white line all the way up Gon’s left leg, a bit of it soaking into the bottom hem of his shorts, but Gon managed to somehow get some in between Killua’s under and outershirt, giving him a shaving cream gut. Gon laughed the whole time and though it was infectious Killua kept his competitive face on. He couldn’t help it though, there was a warm pressure in his chest that made Killua not want to stop. Not because he was angry anymore, but because he was having fun. It didn’t last long through, Leorio, when he noticed their tussle, yelled out a loud

“Gon!” and jogged over to the boys. Gon had been able to flip he and Killua, pouring shaving cream all over Killua’s shoulders. Killua had his foot on Gon’s chest and, as Leorio came over, he kicked Gon off him onto the ground. As Gon hit the grass he made a little ‘oof!’ Leorio grabbed him under the arms and hauled him to his feet. “What are you two doing? The fight hasn’t even started yet, and you’re not supposed to aim for the face!” Gon stuck out his tongue, mock apologetic. 

“Sorry Leorio,” he said “we got a bit carried away, yeah Killua?” Killua rubbed a spot of shaving cream off of his forehead. 

“Yeah. Our bad.” 

“I’m taking you guys to administration. You’re gonna have to sit in the office with Beans until the fight’s over since you can’t handle it it seems.” Leorio put on a stern voice but there was something in his eyes, a hint of love and humor and appreciation, that made Killua feel like he was going easy on them. 

Beans was nicknamed Beans because he was bald and it was rumored that one time a kid came into the office with a broken arm, like a really bad break where part of the bone sticks through the skin, and Beans had taken one look at the arm and barfed. They said he turned green, looked like a pea or edamame, and so he was nicknamed Beans. No one knew if he minded that it stuck, he never complained about it. 

“You boys were fighting?” He asked Gon and Killua who stood in front of him with wet clothes and smiles. Gon’s was much bigger but Killua couldn’t help the pull of his lips. 

“We were wrestling!” Gon said “we thought the shaving cream fight had started so we were just having fun.” 

“It was against the rules to aim for the face.” Gon looked over at Killua, then back at Beans. 

“Whoops!” He said with a shrug. Beans sighed. 

“You boys are going to sit in this office until dinnertime. If you need the bathroom I’ll be right outside working on some paperwork.” After Beans left, Killua had already flopped into one of the office chairs, spinning idly around, well used to being stuck inside thanks to Illumi. Gon stood by the door, peeking through the crack of it. After he’d stood there a while he moved towards the window, pulling it open and pushing on the screen. 

“What are you doing?” Killua asked, sliding off his chair to stand next to Gon, prodding at the screen. Gon smiled as he gave a good push and the screen separated from the frame, falling uselessly on the ground outside. 

“We’re not gonna stay inside all day are we?” 

“My bro’ll kill me if we get caught.” 

“Then let’s not get caught!” He said, like it were easy. “We’ll be back before dinnertime, Beans won’t even notice.” Gon swung his leg out of the building, pulling himself up onto the frame and ducking his head under the window, peeking out into the fresh air. “You are coming too right?” Killua looked at him, there was a glint in his eyes that made Killua want to say yes. He had flakes of gold embedded in the amber of his iris. He looked at Killua like he wanted him to say yes. So Killua did, why would he resist this boy, this force of nature. 

“Yeah,” Killua said “I’m coming too.”

**Author's Note:**

> Camp AU! Camp AU! 
> 
> Anyway gimme some comments about ur camp experiences! I had some wack ones. For example: I, a jew, once spent two weeks at a christian camp. While I was there I stepped on a spider and got bit 3 distinct times. Good stuff. 
> 
> Hmu on twitter @Poetforprofit if you're into it.


End file.
